Attorneys general for 24 states have partnered with numerous agriculture groups to ask a federal court to vacate the Biden administration’s amended Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. The states and groups argue that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the Administrative Procedure Act and did not follow the Supreme Court’s ruling in Sackett v EPA.

In May 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the significant-nexus test used previously to determine the Clean Water Act was unconstitutional. Four months later, the EPA issued a final amended rule removing the significant-nexus test which assesses flow tributary characteristics with nearby wetlands to determine how the two are connected.

Many states including Texas and North Dakota issued an injunction against the rule. The call to vacate the ruling comes from the desire to clarify what constitutes a body of water in the U.S. and therefore what bodies can be regulated by the federal government.

Read more on the WOTUS ruling efforts here.